Sunday, November 21, 2010

Others do it too!

I've written previously about pre-aging new clothes, but I haven't done this...yet.

I was unsuccessfully attempting to identify a tartan recently. One thing led to another ,and as is the way of the internet, an hour later I was reading a forum dedicated to things Scottish when I came across one man's description of his efforts to resize his new Balmoral hat. Photos from the forum.

Toss it in a stream...

Hang it on a branch in the sun.

Repeat.

It's a story I know well, having done the same countless times with other items of clothing. What caught me up short was a comment from a South Carolina boy on the forum. I present it here.

>The 50 Mission Crush...

In my experience., almost anything that looks new when it is has been made to look old by someone. I read on a blog (Maxminimus:http://maxminimus.blogspot.com/ ) where the author was trying to "Get the Jos. Bank" out of his sportcoat, presumably, meaning he wanted it to look less off-the-rack and more "his". I have heard of all manner of aging processes applied to boat shoes, jeans ( before you paid $300 for someone else to do this) US Navy chambray shirts, etc. A fighter pilot taught me the phrase in the title. He also said the quickest way to achieve it was to remove the stiffener.

I see you've properly tied the ribbon on the back. Well done. A few well placed stitches will keep it that way. And "burn water" is a proper and natural aging agent. Well done again. I'd recommend shaping the bonnet on your head while it's damp, pulling it over to the side to the degree you desire, and then rolling it up and leaving it to dry to take a degree of "set". You'll find the crown shrinks a bit and the wool become a bit felted and more organic looking. Enjoy!

Once, as a young boy, when he was no more than six or seven years old, Reggie thought it amusing to throw his brother Frecky's beloved tam-o-shanter out the window of the family station wagon while whizzing down the highway on a summer famiy road trip to visit his grandparents. Frecky shrieked with rage, which excited Father Darling to violently swerve the wagon to the side of the highway, where Reggie--terrified--was forced to run back down the road and retrieve said tam, which had landed in the grass aside the highway. Ever since Reggie has thought twice about such shenanigans, and has respected a man's fondness for his chapeaux, no matter how silly they look. BTW, Reggie covets your Balmoral, and requests the supply of said haberdasher's name so that he may procure such an adornment for his own head. Would you be so kind?

Now that Reggie has done some research on the subject, he has learned two things: (1) where you procured your Balmoral, so that's taken care of, and (2) the hat Reggie threw out the car window as a boy was NOT a tam o'shanter, but rather a Balmoral, but in the tradition black/red/white color way. Case closed.